This relates to a variety of problems such as computer viruses, cleanup of unusable or unwanted programs, and upgrading software that annoy and inconvenience the users of personal computers.
Despite the existence of good programs to detect and remove computer viruses, unscrupulous and adventurous computer programmers frequently try to skirt the virus antidote programs by creating new viruses that are hard to detect or remove. Thus, there is an on-going struggle between the creators of virus programs and the companies that find the antidotes for such viruses. A diligent user of a computer, therefore, must keep abreast of the developments in the computer virus warfare and upgrade to the latest software to detect and eliminate any new virus that may have infected his computer system. An automatic way of upgrading the virus antidote programs would help to ease the burden on the computer user.
Today, there are hundreds of vendors who offer trial versions ("demonstration copies") of software as a method of gaining inroads in the market place. A typical computer user may wish to evaluate demonstration copies of software programs by different vendors before making a decision to purchase the best program for a particular use. These demonstration copies, once downloaded and activated, will reside on the computer after any expiration date set therein unless deliberate efforts are made to remove them. Once a demonstration copy has expired, it will not be useful to a computer user and will only take up valuable storage space on the user's computer. A typical computer user must plod through all directories in the computer to identify the unusable or unwanted computer programs and remove them in a careful manner. To perform such task manually is not an optimal use of the time of a typical user. Additionally, in a manual cleanup of unusable or unwanted computer programs, there is a danger of deleting critical or useful programs accidentally, thus rendering the computer inoperative. Thus, there has developed a need for an accounting of software that is functional and useful and that which is unusable and merely occupying storage space on the computer.
To overcome some difficulties in removing outdated software programs from a user's computers, some vendors have started to market software programs like TuneUp.TM. to perform these tasks automatically. However, because of changes in the releases of operating systems, or the addition of new features, newer versions of such programs are released often. This creates a situation where a user must purchase and upgrade the previous versions of the "tuneup" programs. Accordingly, there is a need for an automatic method and system to cleanup a computer storage without the need to purchase newer versions of cleanup software. It is beneficial to a user if such cleanup happens without the user's intervention, and during the times when the user does not attend to the computer.
Another problem faced by a computer user is prompt notification that a new upgraded version of software is available. In the past, vendors have developed different ways to notify their customers. One method is to place a new advertisement banner indicating a new product or offering on other web sites and lead users to the advertiser's web site. But not many customers respond to such Internet invitations to click on an advertisement banner. Another way is to post a "What's New" page on a vendor's web site with links to other pages containing detailed information. This does not work well because this requires users to visit the vendor's web site periodically looking for new information. A third way is to maintain lists of electronic mail addresses for interested customers and send them e-mail notification periodically. Maintenance of these lists has proved to be tedious. Additionally, many customers object to receiving unsolicited electronic missives.
In order to automatically update information in a personal computer via the Internet, a new technology, called the "push" technology, has emerged. This technology incorporates the broadcasting model into web servers and browsers. The primary purpose of this technology is to overcome the problem of ensuring that interested parties are notified whenever information content in a web site is updated. "Content" is distinguished from other kinds of electronic information, such as programs and electronic mail messages in that content is the subject matter contained in a newspaper, a Lexis/Nexis.TM. database or the like. Content is neither a machine to perform a task nor a structure or description of how data are arranged in a computer. The push technology has helped corporations tailor their sites for particular groups of users so that interesting content is easily located. The push technology also has enabled messages to be sent to the audiences when it was deemed ready for publication. Using push publishing, web site publishers have delivered newsletters to niche audiences or notified subsets of their readers of updated content.
PointCast.TM. was one of the earliest implementations of the push technology to deliver information content. A user is typically advised to specify the type of content--news, entertainment, sports, or interest group related information--to be downloaded as it is updated. When upgraded content is available, the user may elect to download the information which can be browsed locally at the user's computer. PointCast.TM., however, is configured only to deliver content to the browser of a computer over the Internet. It is not designed or equipped with the means to download executable programs to a storage device connected to a computer and execute them at the remote computer.
Other products are aimed at delivering executable computer programs to a user computer and executing them locally. Oil Change.TM. is such a product. Once installed on the user computer, it allows automatic updating of computer programs via the Internet. In the case of Oil Change.TM., a user can update to new versions of previously purchased and loaded software, or download a new "patch" or a bugfix, device drivers for new peripheral devices, templates, clip art and business forms to work in conjunction with word processing software packages, screen saver images, or the latest amendments to the tax code to work with accounting software packages. Another example of a similar commercially available product is Castane.TM. from Marimba, Inc. In these systems, a user is required to download executable software programs from the vendor's web site via the Internet using a variant of a protocol called the File Transfer Protocol ("ftp"), and manually execute the downloaded programs on the user's personal computer thereafter. This mechanism is similar to loading software from a store-bought portable storage medium, such as a magnetic tape, a floppy disk or a CD ROM and running the software locally on a user's computer, except that the program is downloaded from the Internet instead of being loaded from a storage device.
Executing software on a 32-bit personal computer running a Windows-95.RTM./98.RTM. or NT.RTM. operating system involves registering the software in a data store called Windows Registry. Windows Registry is a configuration data store for both hardware and software. The settings in Windows Registry control the behavior of the software. When a user attempts to execute software on a personal computer equipped with the above-mentioned operating systems, the operating system interprets the user's attempt and runs the software based exclusively on the information from the Windows Registry. Typically, an entry in Windows.RTM. Registry is made during the installation process of new software on a computer. Vendors of software application programs provide automatic means to ensure proper installation of their programs. If, on the other hand, no entry is made in the Windows.RTM. Registry, the context under which a user used the software is lost. There is a need, therefore, for a system and method to store the information related to the context of software usage without using the Windows.RTM. Registry as a repository of such information.
The programming language Java.TM. contemplates a virtual machine called the Java Virtual Machine.TM. (JVM) to run compiled Java.TM. code and stand-alone programs called "applets," after they are downloaded to a compatible web browser such as the Netscape.RTM. Navigator.TM., in a tightly controlled and secure environment. The JVM.TM. is a software implementation of a central processing unit (CPU), an essential component in every computer. Software written in this virtual machine methodology run within a contained environment defined to work only in a browser program and cannot access a client computer's file system or desktop easily.
Other programming methodologies, such as the Component Object Model (COM) have been developed to overcome this deficiency. However, this does not solve all the problems with delivering executable software to a client computer over the Internet in a form ready to be automatically executed. There is a need, therefore, for a method to encapsulate software as to make it executable automatically upon delivery to the client computer.
Users of personal computers do not wish to entrust access to their computers to an unknown remotely located entity, for fear of losing privacy or causing damage to data stored in their computers. A service offered by a trustworthy source such as McAfee Associates, Inc., a well known vendor of computer security software, will overcome the user reluctance to allowing access of their personal computers to a remote operator.
In summary, the state of the art provides means to deliver components of programs, means to deliver executable programs that must be executed locally by manual intervention, and means to provide content rather than executable programs. This art can be improved by delivering executable software rather than mere components to a personal computer; by allowing a trusted remote operator to access the internal components of a personal computer; and by executing programs automatically from a remote location. There is a need, for example, for a system and method in which when a user connects with a web site, an application may be downloaded, installed, registered and executed without any further intervention on the part of the user.